VERNON TOWNSHIP —
With only five of Crawford Central School Board’s nine members present for Monday’s work session, in-depth discussions about the district’s fiscal future, including a look at the impact of the passage of the state budget after the district’s 2012-13 budget was put into place, are going to wait a week — until the school board’s monthly meeting on Monday.
Ditto for a hard look at the possibilities of hiking gate fees for district sports events and imposing a pay-to-play fee on all extracurricular activities.
However, the board got a work-session preview of the discussion to come.
At the present time, Crawford Central is charging a football gate fee of $4 for adults and $2 for students; $3 for adults and $1 for students for other major sports; and $2 for soccer.
Superintendent Charlie Heller is expected to propose raising the adult gate fee for all sports to $5 and the student gate fee to $3 and making an adult season pass for the entire school year available for a one-time fee of $50.
Admission to some sports, such as baseball and softball games and cross-country competitions, as well as middle school volleyball and basketball games, will remain free.
When board member Frank Schreck noted that in addition to a proposed $50 pay-to-play fee for student participants, fans will also have to pay more, district resident and long-time teaching and coaching veteran John Amato said that if pay-to-play is not in place, the increased ticket price is not unreasonable — but if the district is going with pay-to-play, “neither is good.”
Both former Meadville Bulldogs football coach Ken Achenbach and Meadville resident and sports booster Al Pepicelli, who were both present for the work session, described the proposed gate fee structure as “reasonable.” “I’m surprised the season pass isn’t more than $50,” Pepicelli said. “Considerably more.”
Amato, Achenbach and Pepicelli, however, all pleaded with the board to re-think the concept of pay-to-play. Specifically, the board was asked to postpone imposing the new fee for a year — until the community — including businesses, private individuals and booster groups — has had an opportunity to rise to the occasion and provide an alternate source of funding.
“We need to look at what’s out there in terms of financial support,” Amato said.
“We need to get it done at a local level before charging people $50 to pay to play,” Achenbach agreed.
Heller expressed disappointment that the planned discussion of the fiscal issues the district is facing in coming years had to be postponed until the board’s monthly meeting Monday night at 6 p.m. in the district’s instructional support center in Vernon Township because he felt that discussion would have contributed a necessary perspective to the pay-to-play that was supposed to follow it on the agenda for Monday’s work session.
The in-depth discussion was postponed because only five of the district’s nine board members was present for Monday’s session. “Our community and our staff is very naive about the future of the public school session,” Heller said, noting that extracurriculars will be the first thing to get cut.
The discussion will continue Monday.
“This is a great opportunity to get people involved in problem-solving,” Achenbach told the Tribune. “It’s amazing what can happen when you do that.”
Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.
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